An Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent walks down the aisle among shackled Mexican immigrants in a boarded charter jet for deportation. (AP photo)

Harris County Sheriff Adrian Garcia and Texas lawmakers led by Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Austin say the Obama administration’s decision to cut spending for the controversial 287(g) program could be devastating to local law enforcement.

The program has helped local law enforcement authorities nationwide identify more than 275,000 undocumented immigrants in their custody.

President Obama, in his 2013 budget blueprint released Monday, requested a $17 million reduction – or 27 percent – for 287(g) operations across the country.

“Elimination of 287(g) would mean the failure to refer to ICE for possible removal many violent, dangerous, experienced criminals who had no previous contact with ICE before being charged with a state crime in Harris County,” Garcia said in response to a request for comment.

The Department of Homeland Security, which administers the Immigration and Customs Enforcement program, says it plans to discontinue “the least productive” 287(g) partnerships with local authorities in order to meet the funding cut.

In a hearing before the House Committee on Homeland Security on Wednesday, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano argued that another immigration-status screening program, dubbed “Secure Communities,” can also meet the goals of 287(g), which is named for the 1990s immigration statute that created it. Napolitano said Secure Communities is more “consistent, efficient and cost-effective.”

For the Obama administration, the budgeting decision came down to a choice between two programs.

The “Secure Communities” program currently operates in 45 states including Texas. Homeland Security officials hope to activate it nationwide by Dec. 31.

Secure Communities identifies criminal undocumented immigrants by running the fingerprints of all individuals arrested by state and local authorities through a federal database. The fingerprints only yield a match if the individuals under investigation have had previous contact with ICE. Reasons for previous contact may include prior arrests and identification at ports of entry.

Nearly 31,000 convicted criminals have been identified and deported under this program in Texas, according to data issued by the federal agency this month.

The three Texas agencies that participate in 287(g) are the Carrollton and Farmers Branch Police Departments near Dallas and the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

Garcia’s office teamed with ICE in mid-2008 to run 287(g) at the county jail. Eighteen Harris County sheriff’s deputies have been trained by ICE agents on immigration law through this partnership.

The 287(g) program allows local deputies to question individuals – regardless of their crime – about their immigration status when they arrive at the jail. Deputies then can place holds, commonly known as detainers, on the inmates they deemed to be in the country illegally. Thus, when the suspected undocumented immigrants are released from jail, deputies can turn them over to ICE.

Many undocumented immigrants could continue to game the system, authorities say, if local law enforcement agencies are not permitted to ask questions allowed under 287(g) – and solely have to rely on the Secure Communities’ database.

Garcia said he feels “confident” that his department will not see funding cuts for its 287(g) operation in 2013. He considers it among the most productive in the nation. Still, the sheriff fears that the agency’s budget “foretells further cuts and a possible phase-out” of the program.

Rep. McCaul says the program should be expanded, not eliminated.

“This administration has once again proposed a policy that benefits dangerous criminal aliens over the law-abiding citizens of the United States,” McCaul said, adding that without 287(g) “criminal aliens will be arrested, do their time, and then be released back onto our streets instead of getting a one-way ticket out of our country.”

But other Texans say that tough spending decisions are needed in the face of a trillion-dollar federal deficit. Rep. Henry Cuellar, a Laredo Democrat, called the operation of 287(g) in Harris County a “good model” that could be emulated by other jurisdictions. But reducing the nation’s deficit is a higher priority, he said.

“If we had all the money in the world and we didn’t have to prioritize, we would have both of them. It would be the ideal situation,” Cuellar said. “But experts have been asking us to reduce the deficit.”